As an author who tried the traditional route for decades without success, being able to self-publish with Amazon has offered me the amazing privilege of getting my stories into the hands of readers. Of course, there is always the fear about lack of quality assurance that comes with any self publication and it is often this doubt that prevents readers trying the work of an indie author. I like to think that the readers themselves provide the QA in the form of their reviews.

Also, I admit to being one of those doubting readers before I started down this route myself. Discovering KDP on Amazon changed all of that for me. I still read Jack Higgins and Clive Cussler, and eagerly await each new book, yet I have also discovered some superb authors whose books do not currently grace bookstore shelves.

A couple of examples are David Leadbeater and Alan McDermott. They write exciting, action-packed thrillers and I would rate them as highly as any traditionally published author I have read. I discovered them on Amazon, via the indie route, and I am very glad to have been converted to someone who now genuinely believes that there are excellent books being made available by the self-publishing approach. Other names that spring to mind are Terry Tyler, Elise Stokes, Karen Perkins and Mark Dawson.

I am proud to be an indie author and I am an avid reader of indie books. If you have not tried one yet, I recommend checking out Amazon's Top Free 100 as a starting point or clicking the links to some of the above-mentioned authors at the bottom of my Home Page.

Finding the time to write has always been an issue I have wrestled with. Until that heady day when I can earn a living purely as an author, the day job takes up a huge amount of my time; time that I would rather spend writing the next James Pace or Ian Flyn thriller. Family is very important to me - I also need us to spent quality time together. When you throw in sleeping time, there isn't a great deal left and finding dedicated time to write is difficult.

For me, the only way I have ever found to actually write is to use early mornings or holidays. During the summer months, I can get up early and sit in the garden at my laptop for a couple of hours on Saturday amd Sunday, before everyone else is up. Sometimes, I can even cram in an hour before work! During the dark, cold of winter, this is impossible so I default to holidays.

Years ago, I tried writing my stories on an 'as and when' basis, believing that I would find enough windows of writing time over the course of a year, for example. In reality, I found that it meant I was forever re-reading what I had already written and spending more time reviewing/catching up than producing the next few pages. For me, this just did not work.

What works for me is to write in an intense, sustained burst of a couple of weeks; in a holiday period. In these weeks, I get up early and write for at least five hours each day. I build up a head of steam and find it easier to keep all the plots and sub-plots humming along and on track.

More importantly, I also enjoy writing this way and the concentrated creativity ensures that I retain my enthusiasm for the characters and their situation, despite the muscular aches and grumbles of spending long periods of time at the keyboard. I can have a whole new book written (draft version) in a few weeks which then allows me a more leisurely period of editing.

One day, I hope, my holidays will actually become far more relaxing but, until then, they are my writing windows.